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Mo Palmer is a native New Mexican who has lived in Albuquerque for fifty years. She worked at the Albuquerque Museum for fifteen years as a volunteer and as photo archivist, curating a 100,000-item historical collection. She is also a freelance writer and has coproduced eight Albuquerque history documentaries. Palmer writes a monthly history column for the Albuquerque Tribune, has collaborated on an exhibit and catalog with the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and is an oral historian. She teaches New Mexican history to seventh-grade students at Sandia Preparatory School.

Ben Plewes was trained as a furniture maker in the early 1990s before working for a number of London-based design consultancies and furniture manufacturers. Ben currently runs his own bespoke furniture making business.

Darren Pih is the Exhibitions and Displays Curator at Tate Liverpool, where he has worked since 2005. Darren has published numerous essays for exhibition catalogues and online. Darren lives in Liverpool.

<p>Tom Peacock has no recollection of his first racecourse visit, when taken in a pushchair to see the 1982 King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, but something must have rubbed off on him. After university he landed a production role for a racing television station. Switching to journalism, he worked for the Press Association for the best part of a decade and most recently was a racing reporter for the <em>Daily Telegraph</em>, covering meetings from as far afield as Australia and Qatar. Tom has twice been nominated as Reporter Of The Year at the Horserace Writers &amp;amp;amp; Photographers Association (HWPA) awards and has appeared as an expert for CNN and talkSPORT.</p>

Roger Protz is a beer writer with an international following. He has written more than 20 bestselling books and writes for many magazines including All About Beer in the United States and Beer &amp;amp; Brewer in Australia. He stages talks and beer tastings and judges around the world, including Friends of the Smithsonian in Washington DC and the World Beer Festival in Durham, North Carolina. His many awards include lifetime achievement awards from the British Guild of Beer Writers and the Society of Independent Brewers. His website is www.protzonbeer.co.uk

<p>Polly Powell is a book publisher who decided to write this book for her two children as they faced the prospect of moving out of home and into student digs at university. Wracked with motherly guilt about all the things she hadn’t managed to tell them, she embarked on identifying and explaining the 50 most important life-skills that had somehow slipped through the net. She lives in hope of seeing the perfectly ironed shirt.</p>

Hitha Palepu, founder of the website, Hitha on the Go, has travelled more than 500,000 miles around the world accumulating a wealth of tips and trips of the best ways to pack right and pack light. She and her blog have been featured in the New York Times, Forbes and GLAM. She lives in New York City with her husband and son.

Kay Plunkett-Hogge is an acclaimed food and drinks writer and the author of Aperitivo: Drinks and Snacks For The Dolce Vita, Adventures Of A Terribly Greedy Girl, A Sherry And A Little Plate Of Tapas, Heat: Cooking With Chillies and Make Mine A Martini. In addition to her own books, Kay has co-authored a further six books, working with the award-winning chef Bryn Williams on his two books Bryn’s Kitchen and For The Love Of Veg, Academy Award nominated actor Stanley Tucci on his second cookbook The Tucci Table, and with the American pizza guru Chris Bianco. She also co-wrote Leon: Family and Friends with John Vincent and Cook Yourself Thin: Quick and Easy. She writes a monthly column for delicious magazine and lives in London with her husband, cats and dogs.

Alexandrine Portelli worked in the fashion industry for many years before returning to her roots to head up the design team at her family’s interiors business. Her personal passions are writing and all things magical and mysterious. She is an avid collector of children’s books, especially fairytales – the darker the better!

Sandra Polley has always enjoyed craftwork, especially knitting. She particularly enjoys creating little characters from scraps of yarn. Her designs have featured in craft magazines, such as The Knitter, Simply Knitting and Woman’s Weekly. She also runs a successful small business ‘Knits and Pieces’ selling her patterns through yarn shops and companies throughout the UK. Sandra now lives in Leicestershire and has two daughters, a young grandson and a very little Border Terrier called Oscar. She is the author of The Knitted Teddy Bear.

Cook, prolific author and journalist, and star of the BBC’s Big Allotment Challenge, Thane loves food and has been cooking and writing about it for 20 years. For 12 years she was the food writer for The Daily Telegraph Weekend section and is a regular contributor to BBC Good Food magazine. She has written 10 books; her most recent was translated into 5 languages. She set up and ran the acclaimed Aldeburgh Cookery School, and now runs bespoke cookery courses. She lives in London and continues to write, teach and eat.

Dorcas Pelling has written popular columns for The Erotic Review and Grove Magazine; she has also interviewed and written features and reviews for Canary Magazine, Lotl Magazine Sydney and Time Out Sydney, as well as being involved in the London literary salon Plectrum. Pelling lives in London with her partner and is about to start work with collaborator Sukie Smith on their first play.